Grading Sci-Fi Realism: Hard, Soft, or In-Between?

Zachary The First · January 19, 2007, 03:32:02 PM

Saw this in a thread over at Le Purple Site, and thought it seemed pretty interesting. Basically, it's a scale for gauging how realistic sci-fi is based on the components therein. So, where does your favorite sci-fi game rank?

flyingmice · January 19, 2007, 03:47:47 PM

StarCluster is definitely Medium Hard. They even list two of the inspirations for the game - Niven's Known Space and Brin's Uplift series.

Cold Space/FTL Now is wierd. There is only the Solothurn Drive itself that isn't present or past tech, and it's based on some relatively unknown scientific theories that may well prove out. I'd say it's quite Hard though.

-clash

Mcrow · January 19, 2007, 03:49:13 PM

Yeah, I saw this a while ago. Pretty good sumation I think.

Sci-fi I like generally go anywhere from Plausibly Hard to Very Soft.

Plausibly Hard: Cold Space maybe could go in firm

Medium: Starcluster,Nebuleon,SST,B5

Soft: Hardnova

Very Soft: Star Wars & Star Trek

HinterWelt · January 19, 2007, 03:50:06 PM

I am not positive on Nebuleon. I think it would be Firm or Medium. I don't think it would in the soft range.

Zach, do you have a copy of Nebuleon?

Bill

Zachary The First · January 19, 2007, 10:45:18 PM

Quote from: HinterWeltI am not positive on Nebuleon. I think it would be Firm or Medium. I don't think it would in the soft range.

Zach, do you have a copy of Nebuleon?

Bill

I have the pdf on my external HD, which I'm troubleshooting at the moment (damn all moves). I enjoyed the heck out of it, and would place it more Firm then Medium, according to this scale, anyways.

Dominus Nox · January 20, 2007, 12:26:01 AM

"Hard" science: Transhuman space, tho the timeline needs to be moved back about 50 years, and the bit about terraforming venus needs to be dropped.

"Medium" science: Traveller. Hs jump drive, reactionless thrusters and artifical gravity, but tries to follow known scientific fact when possible.

hgjs · January 22, 2007, 03:16:52 AM

Very Hard: Transhuman Space

Drops through the bottom of the scale: Star Wars

J Arcane · January 22, 2007, 02:07:33 PM

I think Planetes definitely fits in the Ultra Hard category. In fact, in some ways I think the definition of ultra hard even allows some things that Planetes doesn't allow itself.

Zachary The First · January 22, 2007, 03:16:00 PM

Quote from: J ArcaneI think Planetes definitely fits in the Ultra Hard category. In fact, in some ways I think the definition of ultra hard even allows some things that Planetes doesn't allow itself.

I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with this product. Mind giving me a brief synopsis and/or link?

Dominus Nox · January 22, 2007, 04:26:32 PM

Quote from: Zachary The FirstI'm sorry, I'm not familiar with this product. Mind giving me a brief synopsis and/or link?

It's a janapanime about a crew of people who live and work in orbit, cleaning up 'junk' left over from a century of space efforts. A subtitle for it reads "In space a bolt can screw you" and the series opens with a suborbital transport plane being hit by a bolt that'd been floating around in orbit for years after being discarded, and killing most, if not everyone, onboard.

It's highly realistic, with no 'artifical gravity', 'reactionless thrusters' or anything like that.

J Arcane · January 22, 2007, 04:33:12 PM

Quote from: Zachary The FirstI'm sorry, I'm not familiar with this product. Mind giving me a brief synopsis and/or link?

It's an anime I've been watching recently, so it was the first thing that came to mind. Very hard SF, about guys who collect space debris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes

I highly recommend seeing it. IT's probably the best, and most realistic SF I've seen in a long time, but more importantly, despite the amount of effort lent towards maintaining realism, the stories themselves focuse much more on the human element rather than getting bogged down in technobabble and and science fetishism.

Casey777 · January 22, 2007, 05:49:48 PM

Planetes started as a series of manga books, available translated in English in the US from Tokyopop. The anime's OP (opening credits) are a tribute to the exploration of space and alone would be worth a rental. NASA contributes some supplemental material to the DVD. The manga's slightly more serious throughout.

If you can find it Viz has/had 2001 nights. Not quite as hard but uses an anthology style to depict how Humanity might react to Space instead of a low-level "working joe in space aspiring to be a real astronaut" POV. 2001 meets Arabian Nights. I think it's only manga, no anime.

Neither have games AFAIK.

Balbinus · January 23, 2007, 06:12:25 AM

If Flying Mice is running it, my favourite is probably hard sf.

If Dr Rotwang is running it, I want pulpy space operatic goodness.

Otherwise, although THS is hard sf in terms of science, I think it's vision of the future is way too optimistic and takes no account of climate change, so I'm not sure I would count it as entirely hard. Jovian Chronicles is probably the hardest sf game out there, with THS next, then Blue Planet then Starcluster and then it all gets pretty soft.

Cold Space is fairly hard, but alt history, so not quite sure where that goes. Probably harder than Blue Planet or comparable.

Anthrobot · January 25, 2007, 06:34:51 AM

Quote from: Zachary The FirstSaw this in a thread over at Le Purple Site, and thought it seemed pretty interesting. Basically, it's a scale for gauging how realistic sci-fi is based on the components therein. So, where does your favorite sci-fi game rank?

As much as I love Hard SF in books. I've always found that it can be boring to run in a roleplaying game. All that nitpicking adherence to supposedly "Hard" science gets in the way of a lot of fun for the players.Does anybody agree with me?

Balbinus · January 25, 2007, 06:41:50 AM

Quote from: AnthrobotAs much as I love Hard SF in books. I've always found that it can be boring to run in a roleplaying game. All that nitpicking adherence to supposedly "Hard" science gets in the way of a lot of fun for the players.Does anybody agree with me?

I think it can be as fun, if the game is designed with the fact it is a game in mind.

Essentially, if the kinds of adventures the game supports work naturally with the tech, it will be fine. If though, like THS, the tech shortcircuits the kind of adventures one would normally run and doesn't provide support for what you can do, then it's going to be tough to play.

So Jovian Chronicles is hard sf, but the game naturally gives you cool stuff to do in setting without needing to worry too much. The hard science is built in, you just play in the setting.

THS just doesn't help you at all, and almost anything one might wish to do has a technological angle that you need to work out, rendering it near unplayable IMO.